MELBOURNE co-captain Jack Grimes remains confident in the club's direction despite the Demons remaining winless after eight rounds, but he says the lack of effort during games has to be addressed.
 
The club has come under fierce scrutiny since losing to the Sydney Swans by 101 points on Saturday, but Grimes insisted that all players were behind coach Mark Neeld and his game-plan.
 
On Monday, president Don McLardy published a letter on melbournefc.com.au supporting Neeld and the changes taking place under the new regime.

"It clearly does take time to adjust to this [change]," Grimes said on Tuesday.

"We feel as though we are making inroads into this (and) as much as the weekend didn't show it we are getting better at performing this game-plan. It is becoming more instinctive to all the players."
 
Grimes said the most disappointing aspect of Saturday's game was the lack of performance after such a big build-up.

He said the players had believed they were a big chance to defeat the Swans but clearly failed to achieve a result even close to what they set out to achieve.
 
"We really felt like it was a really winnable game for us and we went up there with a clear mind as to what we had to do to beat them, and clearly it did not go our way.

"That was the most disappointing thing, going into the game so positive and then having that disappointing result."

Grimes said the players had to address a lack of effort.

"At times [it] has not been there and it hasn't been good enough … there are no excuses for that.

"At the same time we are not blaming it on the game-plan as a lot of people are or reluctance to uphold the game-plan."
 
He said any absence of effort was not because of a lack of faith in the leadership group or Neeld.
 
"It's deeper than that I think.

"If there was something so easy to turn effort on it would happen every week, so we're obviously trying to work that out."  

Grimes also said Colin Sylvia was disappointed in how he came across at the end of Saturday's match when the cameras caught him joking with Sydney Swans' opponent Josh Kennedy. 
 
"It didn't look great after a big loss like that, but in the rooms after he was just as gutted like everyone else was.

"He admitted that it didn't look great. We addressed it and moved on and I think he'll be better for it."